GlycoGenesys gets $20 million equity line; OneTravel's stock jumps 16% on completion of debenture

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Oct. 24 - With the major stock indexes rallying and oil prices knocked down, an active day for private placements was led by GlycoGenesys, Inc. with word that it has secured $20 million from an equity line.

Fusion Capital Fund II, LLC agreed to buy shares of GlycoGenesys at the lesser of the lowest sale price on the date of a draw or the average of the three lowest closing sale prices for 12 consecutive trading days, ending the day before a draw.

The proceeds from the 25-month agreement will be used for enrollment of GlycoGenesys's phase I and II multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia dose escalation trials. The rest will be used for general corporate purposes.

After the closing was announced Monday morning, GlycoGenesys's stock advanced $0.05 to end at $0.94.

"We are very pleased to enter into this flexible, long-term funding agreement that has the potential to fund a large portion of our operations through 2007," said John Burns, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer, in a statement. "We will continue to pursue additional funding opportunities to supplement this agreement and to help us commercialize GCS-100 [one of the company's cancer compounds]."

GlycoGenesys has looked to the private placement market for funding in the past, raising $6.5 million March from an offering of series D convertible preferred stock. The preferreds were sold at $1,000 each to investors including Bristol Investment Fund Ltd., Panacea Fund LLC and Fusion Capital Fund II.

The preferreds were convertible into common shares at $1.00 each.

Looking to the company's earnings, for the quarter ended June 30, GlycoGenesys reported a net loss of $2,083,514 compared to a net loss of $2,610,051 for the same quarter of 2004.

Based in Boston, GlycoGenesys is a biotechnology company focused on treatments for certain types of cancers.

As previously noted, oil prices were pushed down Monday as Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida and the major stock indexes saw significant gains as President Bush nominated Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Board chairman.

Oil prices fell $0.31 to end the day at $60.32 per barrel while the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved ahead 169.78 to close at 10,385. The Nasdaq composite index finished 33.62 higher at 2,115.83, and the Standard & Poor's 500 composite index settled up 19.79 at 1,199.38.

One market source said the impressive stock gains and the dip in oil prices may mean more PIPE offerings in the early part of the week.

"Not looking too far ahead, but we could see a few more things coming up," said the sellside source. "Seems like more was being pushed through today. A lot got priced today and that really has to do with stocks making some significant movements."

Biotech may be the sector to watch as drug stocks for the past two sessions climbed, the market source said.

"I'd anticipate more from them," he noted.

OneTravel wraps $12.5 million deal

Heading to the travel sector, Atlanta-based OneTravel Holdings, Inc. saw its stock gain close to 16% after settling a $12.5 million convertible debenture offering.

The 9% debentures are due Oct. 21, 2008 and are initially convertible into common shares at $2.55 each.

The institutional investors that participated in the deal also received warrants for 1,960,784 shares, exercisable at $2.55 each.

The company's stock started climbing almost immediately after the offering was wrapped Monday morning, eventually gaining $0.31, or 15.98%, to close at $2.25.

Proceeds will be used for debt repayment and working capital.

"This financing will enable our business to take several steps forward operationally," said William Goldstein, the company's chairman, in a statement. "For instance, we have budgeted approximately $1 million for investment in technology that will, among other things, enhance the hotel booking experience for our customers, which we expect to be a tremendous growth area for us. We are extremely disappointed in the performance of our stock over the past few weeks. We attribute much of the selling pressure to the failure to file the company's form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005 in a timely manner. We continue to work diligently and have every confidence that we will be able to file the 10-K well in advance of the Dec. 12, 2005 date that AMEX requires in order to bring us into compliance with its listing standards.

"Soon after our 10-K is filed, we will schedule a conference call to discuss our company and provide a clearer picture of the business we have built. We are confident the market will thereafter recognize the value we are creating that is not reflected in our current market cap."

OneTravel is a holding company for travel services concerns.

Diamond Fields leads Canadians

Vancouver, B.C.-based mineral exploration company Diamond Fields International Ltd. led offerings north of the border Monday, announcing the offering of a C$5 million unit deal.

The non-brokered offering is composed of 25 million units at C$0.20 each.

The units include one share and one warrant. The warrants are exercisable at C$0.40 each through June 2, 2008.

Proceeds will be used for debt payment, the advancement of exploration projects and working capital.

On Monday, the company's stock dipped C$0.005 to close at C$0.21.

Elsewhere in Canada, GLR Resources Inc. priced a C$1.1 million deal of up to 1,666,667 non flow-through and up to 1,714,285 flow-through units at C$0.30 and C$0.35 each, respectively.

The non flow-through units are comprised of one share and one half-share warrant. The whole warrants allow for the purchase of another share at C$0.40 each for two years.

The flow-through shares consist of one share and one half-share warrant. The whole warrants are exercisable at C$0.45 each for two years.

Northern Securities Inc. is the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for exploration at the company's Kirkland Lake, Thunder Bay and Uranium City exploration projects.

Toronto-based GLR is a gold, base metal and platinum group metal exploration company. Its stock closed unchanged at C$0.28 Monday.

eMagin stock slips 3%

After announcing the upcoming completion of a $9,143,000 private placement, eMagin Corp.'s stock took a dip on Monday.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based company's stock lost $0.02 to end at $0.65 Monday.

On Friday, when the company announced its plans to sell shares at $0.55 each to a group of institutional investors, its stock dove 23%, losing $0.20 to close at $0.67.

eMagin develops organic light-emitting diode microdisplays and virtual imaging technologies.

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